


Bully

by rudbeckia



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Awkward First Times, College, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder, Oral Sex, Sixth Form College, go on guess who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:21:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29242761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Ben Solo, known as Kylo Ren to, well, to himself for now,   is sent to finish his education at a private boarding school for troubled teenagers. His solution is to get expelled as soon as possible, and what better way than to beat up the school bully?Before he knows it, he’s on the floor, staring up at 6ft plus of angry redhead with Kylo’s blood on his knuckles, his face hurts like hell, and he’s head over heels.But there’s a problem. The school’s sadistic head teacher needs to be dealt with and, between them, new kid Kylo and seasoned school bully Armitage think they know how to do it.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 43





	Bully

**Author's Note:**

> Polished twitfic.

“It’ll be good for you.” Han regarded his boy’s face with sadness and a little regret that always accompanied the thought that maybe if he’d been around more things could have been different. “You’ll make new friends and probably get good grades here.” He tried on a smile that didn’t quite fit. “Mom’ll like that.”  
Ben raised his red-rimmed eyes. “Sure she will,” he replied sharply. “And I’ll be out of the way. Is this a school or a prison?” He twisted in the passenger seat to point back the way they had come, down the long driveway that led to the huge limestone building. “You saw those walls.”  
“It’s to keep people out, not to keep people in, Ben. It’s safe here.”  
Ben glowered and wiped his blotchy face on his sleeve. “Whatever. Let’s get this over with.” He flung the car door open and got out, slamming it shut so hard the car rocked. Han got out too, but Ben was already halfway to the main door with his bag over one shoulder and his head down. Han trotted and caught up. “You’re not coming in with me,” Ben said without turning. “Bye, dad.”  
“No hug for your old man?” Han said, trying to lighten the moment. Ben paused and shook his head. “Okay then. We’ll come visit soon.”

Ben could sense Han standing there, watching him walk away, wondering whether to run up and hug him anyway. He pushed open the huge wooden door and went inside. He’d expected a mausoleum but inside was light and airy with high ceilings and huge windows that cast fluid rainbows on the polished floor where afternoon sunlight glanced through ancient, uneven panes. He walked up to the reception desk. “Hi. I’m new. Where do I go?”  
The receptionist smiled and, despite himself, he wanted to smile back. “You should start by giving me your name,” the man said.  
“I’m Kylo Ren.”  
“Welcome, Kylo.” He frowned at his screen. “I don’t have a Kylo listed. Do you have any other names?”  
Kylo tightened his lips and read the receptionist’s name badge. “Lank.” The man nodded. “I’m listed as Ben Solo. How soon can I have my name corrected?”  
Lank’s smile got even bigger. “As soon as you or your family can provide us with legal documents confirming your legal name change.”

Kylo clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and imagined knocking that smile off Lank’s face. “And how,” he said, “do I do that?”  
“Easy,” Lank replied. “Honestly, quite a few of our students choose to change their names. Leaving their troubled past behind or something. There’s a registry office in town. You take the 52b service bus, fill in some forms, give them your birth certificate and some money.”  
Kylo raised his head, surprise in his eyes. “I thought it would be harder. Do I need my parents to sign anything?”  
“Not if you’re over sixteen, which, if you’re here, you are. As soon as you have earned a day pass you can sort it.”  
Kylo’s alarm grew almost to flash point. “Day pass? Earned?”  
“Yes. You have an appointment with the head teacher in twenty minutes. I’ll get one of the other students to take you to the cafeteria until then. Well, Ben... Oh, I do apologise! Kylo. I hope you settle in quickly.”

Lank smiled at the next person behind Kylo. Kylo gritted his teeth and walked away from the desk. He did a complete circuit of the atrium, looking for a door that might be the headteacher’s office so that he could get himself expelled and go home.

On his third circuit, a door opened and a voice boomed out. “Ben Solo. In here. Now.”  
Kylo walked in, an insult ready on his lips, but it shrivelled to nothing. The head teacher was tall and broad and looked as if his nose had been broken more than once. He had greying hair that may once have been red and his steel grey eyes glared as if daring Kylo to speak out of turn. “Sit.”

Kylo sat in the chair pointed out for him. It was too low and he felt like his knees were level with his ears. The headteacher towered in comparison. Kylo felt himself scrutinised. “I’ve met hundreds of cases like yours,” the man said. “Your parents think you got in with the wrong crowd. Well. Generally kids like you _are_ the wrong crowd.” He leaned forwards. Kylo could see the mottled red of thread veins his cheeks. “Am I wrong?”

He dared Kylo to disagree. Behind him on the wall were certificates and photographs of sombre looking teenagers with names below. The headteacher pointed to one without looking.  
“Lank Paze. You met him. Came to us when his pa had to keep him out of jail for stealing from the wrong people. Now he works here.”  
He pointed to another. “Tritt Opan. He let you through the main gate. Long record of delinquency. Petty crime mostly. Now he runs security. Whatever misdemeanour you’re planning, Opan has done it before and will be waiting to catch you if you try it.”

Kylo’s eyes roved the photographs and drifted down to the display case beneath them where, safely behind glass, was a long, leather strap with a split end. The head teacher laughed without humour. “I see you are interested in my tawse. You do not want to cause me to remove it from its display case. Justice is swift here and punishments are harsh, boy.” He sat back and pursed his lips while Kylo stared. “Expulsion is a last resort.”  
Kylo raised his eyes to meet the head teacher’s sneer. “Oh,” he said.  
A scowl darkened the man’s face. “Oh?” he echoed. “OH? You will address me as Sir. Behind my back the students call me The Commandant. They think I don’t know and that makes them fools twice over. I am proud to be feared. And if you are to turn your miserable life around you will work hard, be respectful, and follow the rules. All of them.”  
Kylo bit his lips. “Yes, sir,” he said, eyes downcast.  
“Go.”

Kylo got up and left, closing the door behind him. Outside, a girl smiled at him. “Hi, I’m to show you around. I’m Rey.” Kylo shuddered visibly. Rey leaned in. “Yeah he does that to everyone. Follow me.” As they got out of earshot of the head’s office, Rey laughed. “Did he give you the ‘they call me commandant’ shit?” She laughed louder at Kylo’s expression. “We don’t call him that. He just wishes we did.”  
“So what do you call him?” he asked as they started up the staircase.  
“All sorts of things,” she replied, pointing down from the window. “None of them nice. Is that your dad out there?”  
Kylo looked. Han waved and gave a thumbs up so Kylo waved back. Han got into his car. Kylo turned to look at Rey rather than watch Han drive away. “I hate them. My parents. They’re dumping me here because they can’t handle me.”  
Rey cocked an eyebrow. “Really. You’re seventeen and need a handler. I can see why you’re here.”  
“Well, why are you here?” Kylo snapped.  
Rey shrugged. “My parents set up a fund for my education. This school was part of it. They’re dead so I can’t hate them.”

Something in Rey’s tone made Kylo want to reclaim his words and bury them. He had to get out. Somehow. He would do something so awful that the head would call Han immediately and Han would turn his stupid car around and drive back up the stupid driveway and pick him up from this stupid school-prison. On the way up to the dorm rooms, Rey picked up a collection of friends. Each one she introduced. There were Rose and Finn who were each greeted with a kiss, Dopheld who hovered around the edge of the group, and Kaydel who looked Kylo up and down once then ignored him. “I heard Armitage is coming back this term,” Kaydel said. Finn and Rose went quiet. Dopheld let out a little ‘eep’ and covered his mouth.  
“No,” Rey said, disbelief in her voice. “Not after what he did.”  
Kaydel nodded. Kylo frowned. “Who’s Armitage?”  
Finn levelled a serious look at Kylo. “He’s the biggest bully I ever met.”

Kylo saw an opportunity. He’d considered hurting one of this little group but they didn’t deserve it. They were nice. Stupid, but nice. But if there was a school bully he could square up against, use his height and growing brawn to knock him senseless, the old bastard with the belt on display would have to expel him. This other boy’s parents would demand it. He rolled his eyes and put on an affected, sneering voice. “Aaarmitage. Ahrmitaaage. Really? You’re all scared of a brat called Armitage?”  
Four sets of eyes looked at him in horror. All four sets then swivelled just a little as if looking at something behind him. Kylo turned. Something with the power of a club hammer slammed into his face and he crumpled senseless to the floor.

He must have been out only for seconds. He came to slowly, groaning, trying to touch his face, but someone who was crouched beside him slapped his hand away. When his eyes focussed again, he saw a red, angry face surrounded by a halo of red hair, a vision of fury with grimacing, pink lips and white teeth, green-grey eyes narrowed into slits, and high cheekbones and a sharp jawline that gave his cheeks a hollow look. Kylo pushed Finn’s arm away and sat, head spinning and throbbing with the effort. He saw that the red-haired boy’s fists were clenched and that there was a smear of blood on his knuckles. Kylo carefully touched his face and looked at his fingertips. Yes, the blood on the boy’s fist was his.

“You,” the boy said, pointing at Kylo, “do not get to make fun of my name. If I so much as see you across the hall I will break your jaw. And that’s no empty threat, it’s a promise. I’ve done it before. Ask anyone.” The boy kicked Kylo’s feet then turned and walked away. Kylo watched him traverse the entire length of the corridor until he disappeared through a doorway.  
“I assume,” he said, looking up at Rey, “that was Armitage?”

Rey huffed through her nose and nodded. “Let Finn help you to your dorm,” she said. “Did Lank tell you where your bunk is?” Kylo shook his head. Rey nodded to Doph, who scuttled off to ask.  
He returned looking even whiter than his sallow complexion already was. “I tried to get him roomed with me,” he said, a defensive tone creeping onto his voice. “But Lank said no can do. Bastard’s orders.”  
Rey frowned. Kaydel shook her head so violently that her blonde braids swished. Rey sighed.  
“Okay this could be a problem,” she said, looking at the keycard Doph gave her. “You’re in Armitage’s dorm.”

Kylo stared at the keycard in Rey’s hand, heart thumping, unable to process his emotions for the sick churning in his stomach and the spinning vertigo in his brain. He groaned and pushed himself up slowly, letting Finn help haul him to his feet. He lurched and Finn steadied him.  
“Not tonight,” Finn said firmly. “You should be in the infirmary overnight. What do you think, Rose? Rey?”  
Rose and Rey looked at each other and nodded. Rose spoke up. “Okay. You take his things to your room. We’ll take him to the medical room.” Kylo, still half-dazed, offered no opinion.

The medical room was run efficiently by a tall blonde woman whose demeanour suggested that if you weren’t at death’s door you were wasting her time. She tutted over Kylo’s swelling face and developing bruise then shooed Rey and Rose out. “How long have you been here,” she asked, shaking her head. “An hour? Two? Whose fist did you slam your face into?”  
Kylo gasped and gripped the plastic sides of the chair he sat on when he felt the sting of antiseptic in his cut. “Arm—” he said.  
“You hurt your arm too?” She stroked a firm but gentle hand from his left shoulder to his wrist  
“No,” Kylo said as the fire in his face abated a little. “Not my arm. The boy who did this was—”  
He stopped as pale blue eyes looked into his, realising after a few seconds of confusion that she was comparing his pupil sizes. “Was who, Ben?”  
“Kylo.”  
“Oh, no.” She laughed. “We don’t have a Kylo. I make a point of learning all the students’ names.”  
Kylo pointed at himself. “Me. I’m Kylo. My name.”  
“Ah.” She turned away and turned back with a sterile pack of wound closure strips. “Well. I suppose I wasn’t always called Phasma, so Kylo it is.”

Kylo sat as still as he could while Phasma finished dressing his cut. “The boy who punched me,” he said, then sucked on his lip for a second. If he told, would it be Armitage who got a free pass to leave permanently? Would Armitage come after him for telling? The image of Armitage’s red, snarling face came back into his mind and he felt a low heat in his groin. “Doesn’t matter,” he said.  
“Good.” Phasma stood up and swished a partition aside to reveal a couch bed. “You’re staying in here for the rest of the day and overnight. A nurse will check on you every half hour and someone will bring you dinner.”

That someone was Dopheld. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said as he held out the tray. “You deserved it.”  
“I said the guy’s name a couple of times,” Kylo replied. “Can’t he take a joke?”  
“You don’t know a damn thing about him.” Dopheld put the tray down on a chair. “Leave him alone. Don’t get in his way. Apologise and he might not shank you in your sleep.”  
Kylo narrowed his eyes as he watched Dopheld’s face, saw the way his cheeks pinked and his eyes averted when he talked about Armitage. The effort of not laughing hurt Kylo’s face almost as much as the cut would have. “You like him,” Kylo said. “You do. I can see it in your face.”  
“So?” Doph scowled. “So what if I do. He’s never been mean to me.”  
“Bet he doesn’t know you exist,” Kylo said. “Maybe if you go up to him and say, ‘Hi, Armitage,’ he’ll punch you in the face too.”

Doph muttered something uncomplimentary and left. Kylo investigated the contents of the dinner tray. He wasn’t too sure what the meal was supposed to be. It tasted bland but he was hungry so he ate it all. He thought he’d be bored but when Rey came to visit and brought him a book, he found that his eyes wouldn’t stay open and he couldn’t concentrate on the page. He let the book slip out of his hands and slept.

Seven in the morning arrived in a shock of lights and noise. “Come on,” Phasma ordered. “Let me look at you.” Kylo groaned and got out of bed, stretching and wincing at the pain. “All right, you’re still alive. That’s a good thing.” Phasma laughed. “Get a shower but keep the dressing dry. Your friends brought you some clean clothes so you don’t have to wear a paper gown to go up to your dorm.”

Kylo nodded. A shower and fresh clothes would feel good. He went into the bathroom Phasma pointed out to him and came out ten minutes later feeling better. “You can have these for the pain if you want them.” She held out a strip of 4 ibuprofen. “We don’t carry anything stronger on the premises. Not officially anyway.” She winked. Kylo pocketed the painkillers and mumbled thanks. Outside the little infirmary, another member of staff waited to escort him silently to the cafeteria. Kylo loaded his tray with cereal, toast and coffee and chose a seat away from the other students and the few staff members who were already present. He felt a shiver down his spine when the head teacher walked in, glared at him, then collected a tray of rubbery eggs and pale, watery bacon.

The headteacher sat only a few places away from Kylo but did not speak or look at him. Kylo returned to his breakfast, grateful now for the book Rey had lent him because he could hide behind the pretence of reading. So he was surprised when a shadow fell across the table and someone else sat opposite. He looked up, a smile ready to stretch his damaged face carefully if it was Rey or Rose or Finn or even Dopheld. But the person who rattled their tray and slammed their spoon down on the wooden surface was Armitage.

Armitage glanced at the head teacher, swivelling his eyes without moving his head, then fixed his gaze firmly on Kylo. “Please accept my most sincere apology for punching you in the face,” he said in a carefully monotonous voice, then downed his tea in one long sequence of gulps. Kylo watched the way Armitage’s throat moved and felt the stirring of desire in his groin again. He sipped his coffee and tried not to grimace at the weak, burnt flavour. Armitage’s eyes flicked quickly to the head teacher and back to Kylo. “Well?” he asked.  
“Apology accepted,” Kylo said. “I—  
But Armitage was already on his feet and turning away. When Kylo looked, the head teacher’s seat was empty.

“KYLO!” Rey waved from the queue building up by the hot food counter. He waved back then nodded to Finn who sat where Armitage had just been and set about demolishing a plate of bacon and eggs with tomatoes. Rose joined them a moment later with Dopheld, then Rey slid into the seat beside him with her tray piled high. “You look like shit,” she said.  
Kylo laughed and winced at the pain. He popped out two painkillers and washed them down with the last of his coffee. “Thank you,” he said. “Armitage just gave me the most stilted, badly rehearsed apology ever.”  
“Mmh.” Rey chewed and swallowed, nodding along with her thoughts. “His dad probably made him do it.”  
“I think the head teacher made him. He sat right there.” Kylo pointed. “And listened until I said apology accepted.”  
Finn frowned. “That’s what Rey said.”

Kylo frowned back, then realisation made him roll his eyes and curse. “He’s the head’s son. Shit. Makes sense now. Two ginger assholes.”  
Doph’s lips tightened into a line. Kylo smiled at him and regretted that he couldn’t wink without it hurting.  
“Anyway,” Rose said. “We all had a discussion about this and you’re not sharing Armitage’s dorm.” Kylo looked at Rose in surprise. “The bastard won’t know we swapped around if no one says anything. You’ll share with Finn since your things are already there, and Doph volunteered to take your space in Armitage’s dorm. So you don’t have to worry about Armitage.”  
“No.” Kylo surprised himself with the force he put behind that one word. “I mean,” he added, “you are very thoughtful but I won’t have anyone else take my place.” He looked at Dopheld and felt a giggle bubble up inside him. “I’ll sleep with Armitage.”  
Dopheld looked thunderous. Rey giggled and Finn frowned then laughed when he realised what Kylo had said. “I’ll ask Poe to search Armitage’s room for weapons,” he said. “Just in case.”  
“Poe’s head prefect,” Rose supplied when Kylo looked questioningly at Finn. “He and Finn have a little thing going. Don’t you?” She bumped Finn’s elbow.  
Finn looked down. “Shut up,” he said, but he grinned.

There wasn’t enough time for Kylo to move his things into Armitage’s dorm before classes began. As the little group cleared their trays and left the cafeteria, Finn jogged over to another student, handsome and smiling, exchanged a few words and a light kiss, then jogged back. “Poe says he’ll  
get Armitage’s dorm checked while classes are on.”  
“Thank you,” Kylo replied. “I’m not going to classes. Where do you people go when you bunk off?”  
“You are so going to class today,” Rey said. “You’re scheduled gym class with me. It’s jujitsu and I’m kicking your ass.”

As it happened, Kylo didn’t get his ass kicked by Rey because Sensei Holdo took one look at him and refused to allow contact sport. He watched from a bench at the side, making a mental note of the good fighters and their preferred moves, and applauded when Rey floored her opponent. Halfway through the lesson, Armitage joined another class sharing the gym. He walked in and sat cross-legged on the mat, slender pale legs in shorts that rode up. Someone in his own class made a winded ‘oof’ noise. Kylo looked around to see Dopheld face down on the mats.

The other class paired off after instruction. Armitage remained seated at the side. Kylo checked that Sensei was busy and moved slowly, sliding further down the bench away from the teacher and standing up. He ambled around the edge of the gymnasium until he stood as close to Armitage as he thought wise. “I’m in your dorm,” he said when he was sure Armitage must be able to hear him. “I’m sorry I made fun of your name. I shouldn’t have done that.”  
Armitage ignored Kylo. He stretched his legs in a wide vee in front of him and leaned forward first over one leg then the other. As he did so, his shirt rode up and his shorts rode down a little at the back of his hips and Kylo held his breath at the hint of pink-red overlapping stripes across the exposed, pale skin. He backed away and returned to watch his own class, anger roiling inside.

Kylo kept his words to himself for the rest of the school day. He traipsed after Rose to maths class then followed Finn to English and Dopheld to biology. He thought he saw Armitage in the corridors a couple of times - surely there couldn’t be two such tall, lithe gingers in a small school - but he made no move to approach the boy. Last class of the day was Physics. As soon as he took a seat at the vacant bench behind Kaydel, the classroom door opened and Armitage sauntered in, looked around, scowled at Kylo and walked out again.

Kylo frowned. The teacher sighed. Kylo looked at the incomprehensible instructions on the board and the tray of equipment in front of him and decided to see how many batteries it would take to blow all the bulbs in his kit, one by one. In front of him, Kaydel and another student argued over where to put the ammeter and the voltmeter, but Kylo had no lab partner to suggest that maybe putting all the batteries in series and shorting them with a single strand of copper stripped from a broken wire was a bad idea. Adding a minor burn on the fingertip to his list on injuries, Kylo realised why Armitage had walked out. The only remaining space was at his bench.

Armitage returned ten minutes later and sat as far from Kylo as he could get whilst still, technically, being at the same bench. He grabbed the tray of components, pulled Kylo’s circuit apart and rebuilt the correct one, writing down the meter readings in two neat columns that he shielded from Kylo’s line of sight. Kylo reached for the tray before Armitage dismantled his circuit. “I saw—”  
“Don’t speak to me.”  
“Mr Solo.” The teacher looked up from their emails. “Please report to Miss Phasma in the medical room. She says your face needs attention.”  
A few students giggled. Kaydel turned round to grin at him. Kylo glanced at Armitage but he made a show of being engrossed in plotting a graph. Slowly, he scraped his seat back, stood up, and left.

Miss Phasma nodded to him and pointed at the chair he’d sat in before. “You don’t need a check up,” she said. “Armitage came in a mood and asked if I could get rid of you for the rest of the lesson. I like him so I agreed.”  
“Uh,” Kylo said. “Thank you?” Phasma resumed her paperwork. Kylo watched for a few minutes, chewing his lip and frowning. “Who do I report it to if I think a student is being... being...” Phasma fixed him with a stare. “...physically, um...”

Phasma puffed out a breath through her nose whilst wearing an expression that suggested she could blast fiery death in the same manner if she thought about it hard enough. “If you want to make life intolerable for your new friend Armitage, you would report it to Mr Hux the head teacher. That would probably result in Armie reporting to me again to have a little topical anaesthetic applied to his back so that he can get through the day. I strongly suggest that if you have any tales to tell regarding Armie that you run them past Armie himself first.”

Kylo sat in stunned silence until the rest of the hour was up, then he left to meet his friends in the cafeteria. Finn waved him over. “Poe moved your things for you,” he said, indicating the handsome young man Kylo had seen him talking to earlier.  
Poe offered a warm handshake. “I did a dorm inspection too. There’s nothing banned in Armitage’s stuff.”  
“Thanks,” Kylo said, “I think.”  
Finn laughed. “There’s still time to take Doph up on his offer of a swap.”  
Kylo smiled. “I’ll be okay. Doph wants to share with Armitage but I think Armitage might eat him alive.”  
Poe and Finn glanced at each other. “Yeah,” Poe said. “I think that’s what Doph is hoping.”

Despite his aching face, Kylo laughed. Soon they were joined by Rey and Rose and Kaydel, all holding hands, and Dopheld who sat on the end and said little. The group hung around together, doing homework and chatting, clearing away their books and folders when the servery opened for dinner. They joined the line of students, chose their meals, and reconvened at their table.

Armitage walked in and went straight to the front of the line. He collected a tray of food and sat on his own. Dopheld watched him as covertly as he could. Kylo picked up his own tray and walked over to Armitage. He sat down. Armitage stared at his meal. “I told you not to speak to me.”

Kylo lifted his pudding from his tray and put it on Armitage’s. Then he got up and returned to his friends. Doph looked like he wanted Kylo to drop dead. “What the fuck did you just do?” Finn asked.  
Kylo shrugged. “Peace offering.”

Across the cafeteria, Armitage got up with the gift pudding in his hand and walked a few steps over to where Kylo sat. His head turned, he stopped, then he went back to reclaim his whole tray and head for the used tray racks by the exit instead. Kylo looked around. Mr Hux the head teacher stood in the entrance looking around while Armitage slipped out the exit.

After dinner, after listening to music and socialising in Poe’s room for a while, Kylo decided it was time to face Armitage. With luck, Armitage might be asleep already. He crept along the corridor to Armitage’s—his—dorm room and opened the door with his keycard.

“Oh! Sorry.”

Kylo backed out again, counted to ten, then went back inside. Armitage was still standing in front of a little round mirror, reaching around his back to smear salve on his skin. “Can I help?” Kylo asked. “I can get the bits you missed.”  
“This is your fault,” Armitage said. “So I suppose you can. But if you hurt me I will kill you.”  
“I believe you,” Kylo said. “So that... thing in the display cabinet. What did he call it?”  
“Tawse. It’s a leather strap designed to sting. Outlawed, of course, but who’s going to give a shit if a violent kid like me gets it? People probably think I deserved it for punching you.”  
“I don’t,” Kylo said, gently brushing the numbing gel onto one of the welts on Armitage’s back. “I deserved it. I was trying to get expelled before my dad got too far away to turn around and pick me up again. You were the obvious answer at the time. Beat up the school bully and get shown the door.” Kylo huffed out a laugh. “Didn’t hear you behind me. It wasn’t supposed to be me that ended up in Phasma’s care.”  
“Fucking typical,” Armitage said with a deep sigh. “Why does everyone want me to end up getting hurt?”

He turned and took the salve from Kylo. Kylo looked away. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t know anything about you except that the other kids were scared of you. I thought that the best way out of this place was to hurt someone. And if that someone was the school bully then it wasn’t so bad.”  
“Doesn’t work,” Armitage said. “I already tried. Why do you think they’re all afraid of me?”

Kylo had no answer. Armitage got into bed and lay on his stomach. Kylo saw that his things had been left on one of the three empty beds in the room. “You have room mates?” he asked.  
“No, just you until you move out.”  
Kylo smiled. “Dopheld would move in like a shot. He likes you.”  
“Dopheld is a nice boy. We groped once and he thought it meant something. He is not my type at all. Shut up and let me sleep.”  
Kylo bit his lip to stop from laughing. He changed into pyjamas then got into bed. “Just set my mind at ease,” he said, judging that Armitage was not asleep yet. “I’m not going to wake up with Phasma removing a shiv from my chest?”  
Armitage snorted. “No chance. Fucking Dameron raided my room.”

Kylo dozed rather than slept, every little grunt or groan of Armitage’s waking him and making him listen out for... for he didn’t know what. He turned from side to side, huffed and yawned, kicked the covers off then pulled them back up.  
“Will. You. Fucking. Shut. UP!” Armitage raised his head and glared across the darkness at Kylo.  
“Sorry,” Kylo said. “First night in a new bed and there was nobody to knock me out this time.”  
Armitage sighed. “I can’t sleep either. First night sharing with a noisy bastard who can’t even breathe quietly. Tell me how you ended up here. Bore me to sleep.”  
“Easy,” Kylo said, settling onto his back with his hands behind his head. “Expelled from three schools because I thought the rules were too stupid to be worth following, expelled from the fourth for starting a gang. They gave me my name. Well, half of it anyway. The Ren half. I already called myself Kylo, in my head.” He pulled his arms under the covers for warmth. “Turns out that eventually no normal school will take you. So after my Knights of Ren and I got into trouble for vandalising the head’s car and hacking into the school computers and uploading porn into all the teachers’ accounts, my parents were given the choice of this school or a juvenile detention centre for the rest of my education.”  
Armitage shifted, winced and laughed. “Should’ve chosen Juvie.”

Kylo smiled at the ceiling. “Look,” he said, ”I know it’s none of my business, but—“  
“Shut up.”  
“But—”  
“Shut. Up.” Armitage leaned over to glare at Kylo. “Like you said, it’s none of your business. So shut up and go to sleep.”

When he woke, Armitage’s bed was empty and he could hear the hiss of the shower and the whine of the extractor fan in their bathroom. Armitage emerged with pink skin, damp hair and a towel around his waist. “Get up now,” he ordered. “Hot water is a finite supply and I’m not sharing with someone who doesn’t shower.”  
Kylo groaned but got out of bed and staggered to the shower. Halfway through washing his hair he remembered that he was supposed to keep his dressing dry. “Hey,” he said as he came out of the bathroom. “Can you help me take this dressing off? Carefully?”  
“Sit down.” Kylo perched on the edge of his bed. Armitage plucked at the loosened edge of the dressing. “Count to three.” As soon as Kylo said two, Armitage pulled up and ripped the dressing off. Kylo yelped. Armitage dropped the dressing in Kylo’s lap. “There you go.”  
“Ow!” Kylo carefully patted around where the dressing had been. “Am I bleeding?”  
“Do you want to be?” Armitage waited with his fist clenched.  
“No, thank you,” Kylo replied. Armitage nodded and smiled. “Thought not.” He turned away and finished dressing, then left.

Kylo caught up with Armitage again at breakfast. He paused opposite Armitage carrying his full tray but Armitage shook his head slowly without looking up so Kylo kept walking and sat with Poe and Finn. It was halfway through History, stealing covert glances at Armitage a few seats away, that Kylo was called for and escorted to the head’s office. He was not offered a seat.  
“Mr Solo.” The head barely spared him a glance. “I have received a report that you propositioned another student, tried to force yourself physically upon him and slapped him when he turned you down. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Kylo stared, jaw hanging open. “No way!” He blinked and shook his head. “Absolutely not. No. I would never!”  
“The young man who reported you has an exemplary record. You do not. Put yourself in my shoes, boy.”  
Kylo felt his anger rise. “So you’re taking his word against mine? He’s a liar!”  
“I would rather discipline an innocent boy—not that you are innocent, are you?—than let this go unpunished. You will—”  
“BULLSHIT!”

Kylo lurched forward, shoving the head teacher’s desk back. “This is bullshit and you know it!” He took a breath, wrestling with the conflicting desires to show that he was in control of his anger and to punch the headteacher’s face to a bloody pulp for suggesting that he was the kind of man who couldn’t accept a rebuff.

“Well, you have certainly shown that you are never far from violence, Solo. That merely confirms what your records suggest. You may not be alone with any other student and you will be assigned a single room.” Kylo gritted his teeth, ready to turn and leave, but the headteacher wasn’t finished. “Mr Opan will assign one of the security staff to shadow you to ensure compliance. If you break this rule, there will be serious consequences.” The head teacher reached behind him and opened the display cabinet. He brought out the leather tawse and smoothed it out on the desk. He held Kylo’s gaze. “Do you understand me?” Kylo swallowed, took a step back, and nodded. Mr Hux pursed his lips. “Good. I know your type. You’re trying get kicked out because it’s the easy option. Well. We do not kick students out here.” He stroked the tawse again. “We correct their weaknesses. Go.”

Kylo left, storming down the hallway in a state of fury so wild that he didn’t notice the uniformed security staff member following him at a safe distance. He ran up to his dorm but his keycard didn’t open the door. He banged on the wood with both fists until something cracked, then clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and tried to direct his fury into something useful instead of breaking the door down to get to Armitage, who was probably still sitting smugly in History class anyway. Of course it must have been Armitage wanting to humiliate him, get rid of him from his dorm, turn people against him. He wondered how many people Armitage had told the same lies to, if Poe and Finn would look at him with disgust, if Rey and Rose and Kaydel would avoid him. If he’d end up as lonely and friendless as Armitage himself was. Well, Armitage was welcome to his pathetic, lonely life as the school bully. He’d thought he understood Armitage, felt sorry for him, tried to be nice. Tried to care about him.

Self-pitying thoughts raced around his mind without bothering to stop and be checked. Kylo calmed himself and went back downstairs to reception, aware of the constant eyes on him. He passed Rose in the corridor and said quickly, “It’s all lies, what he said about me. All lies.” But Rose was past him in seconds on her way to her next class so Kylo didn’t see the look of utter bafflement on her face. At lunch, Kylo collected his tray, ignored Rey waving at him, and sat alone. Armitage was a painful presence in his peripheral vision, occasionally glancing his way, but Kylo refused to give him the satisfaction of gloating.

After lunch, Kylo went to reception. “Lank,” he said.  
“B— Kylo. Have you brought me name change documents?”  
“No. Can you tell me who had appointments with the head teacher this morning, or who just dropped in to tell him their problems?”  
Lank laughed and covered his mouth. “Believe me,” he said. “Nobody tells Mr Hux their problems. And nobody drops in without an appointment or a summons. Let me look...” He tapped his screen a few times then nodded. “As I expected. Mr Hux had a staff briefing at 7.30am but had no other meetings until yours.”  
Kylo frowned. “Wait, that was scheduled? When?”  
Lank nodded. “Last night. Mr Hux edited it into his diary himself. At... Oh, he had a late one. Explains his foul mood. One in the morning.”  
Kylo’s frown deepened. From ten at night until midnight he and Armitage had been together and Armitage hadn’t gone out or made and calls. In fact, Kylo didn’t remember seeing Armitage with a phone. And if this was a report from the previous night, why hadn’t he been hauled in front of the head right away? “Thanks,” he said to Lank. Lank nodded and suggested he go back to class.

It was Physics and he was late. He tried to creep into the room but Mr Brooks saw him and gave an hour’s detention. Kylo sighed and looked around, saw that the only space was beside Armitage, and considered walking out again since he had detention (and worse) already anyway.  
It was another circuits lesson. Armitage had the circuit set up already and a few numbers printed neatly in columns. Kylo sat down, opened his book and wrote in the margin. _Why did you tell your dad lies about me?_  
Armitage read the note and frowned. He shook his head. He wrote another couple of numbers down then added under Kylo’s note: _What are you talking about?_

Kylo gripped Armitage by the upper arm and pulled him to his feet, then half-led, half-dragged him into the corridor where Mr Opan loitered, waiting to supervise. He rounded on Armitage, shoving him back against the wall. “Fuck, Armitage, what’s going on? I thought we were okay. I thought we understood each other. If you wanted me out, you only had to say and I would’ve slept on someone’s floor rather than share with someone who’d stab me in the back.”  
Armitage looked confused and furious. “I have no idea what you are talking about! I thought we were okay too and here you are dragging me out of class in front of everyone and giving them a circus to watch! You fucking clown.”

They glared at each other for a minute then Armitage’s face softened as realisation dawned. Opan cleared his throat. “Tritt,” Armitage said without taking his eyes off Kylo. “Tell Kylo why you work here rather than some fancy security firm.”  
Opan spoke quietly. “Mr Hux has a letter in my personnel file claiming that I abused my position to steal from students. I can’t get a job anywhere else without a reference.”  
Armitage spared Opan a glance then looked into Kylo’s eyes again. “You know Lank Paze on reception?” Kylo nodded. “He went for a job interview last year but my bastard father wrote on his reference that he was under investigation for selling secure exam papers a day before the exams.”  
“But nobody can prove those are true,” Kylo said weakly, his grip in Armitage loosening.  
“And no one can prove them false either,” Tritt replied. “What has the old bastard said about you?”

Kylo released Armitage and took a step back. He glanced at Opan. “That I propositioned a kid and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”  
Armitage and Opan both sucked in a breath. Armitage sighed and shook his head. “And you assumed I’d gone to daddy dearest and made an allegation?” Kylo nodded, face warming with embarrassment. “Nope,” Armitage said, rubbing his arm. “Wrong. This is going to bruise, by the way.”  
“So who accused me?” Kylo asked. He turned to Opan. “You’re in security. Can you find out?”  
Opan shook his head. “Nobody, most likely. If a student had actually accused you of something like that, security would have been on it immediately. You’d be sitting in a police interview with your parents and and a lawyer.”  
“So who accused me?” Kylo asked. “Dopheld?”  
Armitage laughed pityingly. “No. Not Doph. He’s a nice boy. The sort to suffer in silence and hope the feelings all go away. I bet Brendol Bastard Hux accused you himself. Made it all up.”

Kylo processed this information slowly. He shook his head. “I don’t get it. He wants to keep Opan and Lank from quitting and getting better jobs. But what was the point in accusing me?”  
Armitage shrugged. “Entertainment? Blackmail at a later date?”  
“Perhaps,” Opan added, “he thought that you two were too friendly and wanted an excuse to drive you apart. He had you roomed together because he thought you’d hate each other.”  
“Come on,” Armitage said. “Let’s finish this charade for the benefit of Mr Brooks. We’re having a fight.” Armitage winked at Kylo. Opan stood back. “How dare you say that about me!” Armitage yelled, a grin on his face and his arm pulled back ready to deliver a punch.  
Kylo caught on quickly. “You fucking liar!” he shouted back, nodding when he was ready to defend himself. Opan gave them a minute to knock each other over and get grappling on the floor before he radioed for backup. Brooks watched with glee from the classroom door whilst the concerned and excited faces of students tried to peer around him.

It was the talk of the school by dinnertime. Students elaborated and expanded so much on the severity of the mystery false accusation and the violence of the fight that when Kylo sat opposite Armitage in the cafeteria they received a few seconds of silent stares. They neither looked at each other nor spoke, but the message that the show was over was clear. Dopheld approached their table after a few minutes, looking over his shoulder at Rose and Finn and the others. He cleared his throat. Kylo looked up. “They elected me to come and tell you that you are both welcome to join us and none of us believed a word of what was said about you. Either of you.”  
Dopheld looked at Armitage. Armitage frowned at him. “Explain.”  
Dopheld took this as an invitation to sit down. “Well,” he said, “if someone propositioned you and you were’t interested, and they didn’t back off, you’d just stab them.”  
Armitage nodded. “Now fuck off.”  
Dopheld pulled a face and got up. Kylo frowned. “And I wondered why you have no friends.”  
“Listen,” Armitage said quietly, leaning in. “I have a plan to get rid of Brendol. Are you in?”

Kylo put up with the indignity of being escorted everywhere by Opan or one of the other security staff, and Poe helped him move to a single room with a shrug and a sympathetic look. Just to annoy Mr Hux, or so he told himself, Kylo sat with Armitage in every class they shared and in the cafeteria. Under the watchful eye of Mr Brooks, Armitage made a point of sitting close to Kylo, smiling at him, and casually touching his arm or his leg now and then. It was enough, Kylo thought, to make him look forward to physics lessons. Even if it was fake.

It must have worked. After a few days, Kylo found his timetable changed so he no longer shared any classes with Armitage, and his breaks and lunches were shifted too so that the only times they could meet were breakfast and dinner. The ache of not seeing Armitage was eased by the thought that Brendol saw their friendship as a threat. Dopheld carried cryptic messages between them, such as _T not ready_ and _medic standing by_ and, the one that made Kylo’s heart beat faster, _P’s room 12_. He wondered what dirt Brendol had fabricated to make Poe hate him. Poe seemed to like everyone.

A minute before midnight, Kylo peered out of his room and saw that the security staff member’s chair was vacant. He slipped along the corridor, keeping to the walls, ready to duck into a doorway if he heard footsteps. Poe’s room was one floor up and he took the stairs in great, leaping bounds, four at a time, sacrificing stealth for speed in the open area. It was a minute after twelve when he tried the handle of Poe’s room. The door opened and he slipped inside.  
“Dameron?” he said, quietly.  
“He’s in Finn’s room.” Armitage came out of the gloom as Kylo’s eyes adjusted better. “I think my room’s bugged. Poe says he checks his every day and it’s clean.”  
Kylo shook his head. “This place gets worse and worse.”  
Armitage nodded. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to give Brendol a reason to haul us both up in front of him together. How would you feel about being caught, say,” Armitage paused and worried at his lip. “In my bed?”

Kylo was glad of the dark because he knew his healing face must be turning red and his cock  
was definitely voting in favour of whatever Armitage wanted. “I’m okay with that,” he said. “When?”  
“Tomorrow. Tonight, technically. Give your guard the slip and come to my room at ten. Tritt will see to it that whoever’s on duty is distracted.”  
“Okay.” He swallowed. “Um. What... what’s going to happen? I mean I know the plan. I mean—“  
“In my bed?” Armitage laughed. “Whatever. As long as it looks and sounds convincing.” He shuffled closer and laid a cool hand on Kylo’s arm. “As little or as much as we want. What do you want, Kylo?”  
“I want,” Kylo said after a few seconds of internal wrangling between his desire and his conscious thought processes, “to kiss you.”

Armitage came closer, close enough that Kylo could feel him breathing. “All right,” he said, and leaned in to kiss Kylo. Kylo cradled Armitage’s face in his hands and kissed him back, eyes closed, lost in the sensation, desire growing. Armitage put his arms around Kylo’s waist and pulled their bodies together. Kylo knew Armitage must be able to feel that he was getting hard but he didn’t care. He got to kiss Armitage and he’d get to kiss him again tomorrow. And more. Maybe.

Kylo broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against Armitage’s. “Before I say or do anything else,” he said, “I need to know how much of this is real and how much is play acting for the plan.”  
Armitage laughed softly. “Kylo,” he said. “You are a fucking idiot if you can’t see that this is all real.”  
Kylo laughed with relief and joy. He kissed Armitage again, scooped him up and deposited him onto Poe’s bed, then lay down beside him. “So what would you like us to be caught doing tomorrow night?”  
“Touch me,” Armitage said. “Go on. I want tomorrow night to look like we’ve been at it since we met, like we know each other, not an awkward, two minute fumble.”  
“Okay,” Kylo replied, laying his hand flat on Armitage’s cock.  
Armitage laughed. “Wait. I’ll demonstrate on you what I want you to do to me. Okay?” Embarrassed, Kylo nodded. “”Have you done this before?”  
“Only the awkward fumble part,” Kylo said. “With one of—“  
“Don’t need to know,” Armitage replied. “All right. Tomorrow you’re going to undress me slowly and kiss me. Like this.”

Armitage removed Kylo’s pyjama top, dropped it, straddled him and kissed a trail from below his ear down his throat, across his collarbones and down his sternum, pausing to suck and nibble, one at a time, at his nipples. Kylo took a sharp breath in and thrust up against Armitage.  
“Mmm, you like that too?” he said.  
Kylo hissed out a quiet, “yesss.”  
Armitage peeled Kylo’s pyjama shorts down over his hips and made a little _Ooh_ noise as Kylo’s cock sprung free. “I’m going to suck you off,” he said. “Warn me when you’re going to come. I hate surprises.” He leaned down again and sucked kisses along the crease of his hip, finishing by licking and kissing under his balls.  
“Gonna,” Kylo said. Armitage waited. “Okay.”  
“If you come it’s okay,” Armitage said. “We can practise it again after.”  
“Okay,” Kylo said, desperately trying to think of something else to delay his climax. It was useless. A few scant seconds after Armitage sucked the end of his cock into his hot mouth, he garbled a warning and spurted come over his stomach.

Armitage laughed. “Was that fun? I’ve wanted to do that ever since I punched your stupid face and saw you look up at me with those sad eyes.”  
Kylo grinned. “Yes,” he confirmed. “Fun. Sorry.”  
“All right. You do me then we’ll see if you can last long enough to be caught.”  
Kylo wiped his stomach with a corner of Poe’s sheet then rolled on top of Armitage and kissed him. He followed Armitage’s example with a few variations of his own, like spending longer laving his tongue around Armitage’s nipples because of the glorious noises it drew from Armitage, and  
easing his tongue back along the seam behind Armitage’s balls because it made Armitage gasp and wriggle and laugh, then whimper when the point of his tongue encountered the pucker of his entrance. Kylo backed off a bit in surprise, although his grasp of biology was good enough that he knew what he had just done. He worked his way back to Armitage’s balls, then took his whole cock into his mouth. Armitage cursed gently and thrust up but Kylo held his hips still and set a slow pace until Armitage slapped his arm and told him to _fucking move._

Armitage gave barely a warning before his balls tightened and his cock twitched and he came. Kylo stayed still, wondering what to do about the come filling his mouth, decided that he’d soiled Poe’s bed anyway and used Poe’s sheet to deal with it. Armitage lay in his arms for a few peaceful minutes.  
“If I’d known you were up for rimming me I’d’ve suggested it sooner,” he said. “I’d’ve leaned close in Physics and said, hey you big brute, I want your tongue in my hole.”  
Kylo sniggered. “Never done that before,” he confessed. “It just kind of happened.”  
“You ready to go again?” Armitage asked, slipping a hand down to feel Kylo’s erection. “Mm, I think you are.”

They remained in Poe’s room until Armitage said they should leave. Kylo waited in a doorway until he thought his security guard was asleep and snuck back into his room. Next thing he knew, it was 7am and his alarm was blaring.

Kylo went to breakfast and sat with Armitage, trying hard not to blush or to grin until Armitage wrapped his ankles around Kylo’s and winked at him. On his way past with extra coffee, Poe glared at them. Armitage glared back. Kylo mouthed an apology. When Armitage got up first to go to his chemistry lesson, he leaned over Kylo and kissed him then walked away with a smile while Kylo felt as if the entire, cafeteria was silent and staring at him. The normal sounds and sights of the bustling space came crashing back after a few seconds that felt like minutes. Kylo shook his head and blinked. He looked over at his friends’ usual table to see Rey looking delighted and Dopheld looking murderous. He waved, got up and left.

He was antsy all day. Not just because tonight at ten (14 hours and 5 minutes away) he would be back in bed with Armitage’s mouth on him, or his mouth on Armitage, or both at once although he doubted he had enough control for that, but tonight by midnight Brendol would be gone. It was a laughably easy plan once they’d realised they were not alone in their hatred of the old bastard and he had a few employees with nothing much left to lose. Phasma had the means, they all had the motive, they just had to engineer the opportunity. Opan and Paze had the skills to cover up what really happened and present a compellingly easy case to the police who would inevitably have to investigate.

Kylo sent the day in a state of unfocused distraction, staring out of windows or into space or at his blank paper. Teachers ignored him because at least he he was not causing any trouble. Whenever he was asked a direct question, Kaydel or Rose or Finn or Rey or even one time Dopheld blurted out the answer and accept a sharp retort from the teachers. Somehow, he got through lessons. And it was still six hours before 10pm.

Somehow, he had to get through six hours. Poe had a solution. Kylo found himself on a head prefect detention, changing all the bedding on Poe’s floor. That killed the two hours until dinner. At dinner, Kylo sat with Rey’s crowd and pushed his food around his plate until Rey took it from him and ate it. At seven, he still had three hours to cope with and no idea how he was going to do it, when Phasma announced that he was due a follow up check on his head injury. She walked him into the medical room, sat him down and pursed her lips. “I’m going to give you something for the source of your stress,” she said. “You’re to use it before bed tonight. Say... after ten o’clock.” She handed him a small, brown glass phial. “Do you understand the dosage?” He nodded slowly. Phasma smiled. ”Good. You wouldn’t want to overdose on this by accident. Especially if you had been drinking alcohol.” She arched n eyebrow. “You have not been drinking alcohol, have you?”  
“No.” He pocketed the phial. “Thanks.”

Kylo pretended to do homework in the silent study room but he needed more distraction. He went to Rey’s dorm but “No Entry” was scrawled on a piece of paper sellotaped to the door. Rose and Kaydel were nowhere to be found and even he had enough understanding of human behaviour not to go bothering Poe and, by extension, Finn. Armitage was out of bounds until ten. So Kylo, shadowed by one of Opan’s team who gave him a thumbs up and a slow wink in one of the camera blind spots, found himself at Dopheld’s door.

“Oh!” Dopheld stepped back. “It’s you. Um. Come in, I suppose. And your escort can have evening off if he wants. We have a chaperone.”  
“We have?” Kylo went inside. Another student lounged on Doph’s bed, waved lazily at him and returned to the magazine he was reading. Doph introduced the lad as Thanisson but offered no further details. Kylo excused himself and left after fifteen minutes when he realised he was intruding. He returned to his own room and lay on the bed, wondering how on Earth he was going to make it to 10pm. He opened his door and called to his security guard. “Hey, do you think the gym will be open? You up for some sparring?”

An hour later, Kylo felt calmer and he had learned a couple of new moves. He showered and settled down to wait. Just before 10pm he heard the static crackle and hiss of a walkie-talkie, his guard get up and curse, then heavy footsteps receded down the hall. Kylo slipped out of his room and walked swiftly to Armitage’s dorm, head down, not seeing anyone.

Armitage let him in immediately. “Did Phasma give you the all-clear?” Kylo nodded and pulled the phial just far enough out of his pocket that Armitage could see it. Armitage smiled. “Good. I’d hate to think that I was going to let you fuck my brains out for nothing. I mean,” he said, “when you’re not fit for it.”  
Kylo’s sudden doubt about Armitage’s sincerity was quashed by the sight of Armitage playing with the ties of his robe. “Want to guess what I’m wearing under here?” he said, pulling at the sleek fabric.  
“Uh, underpants?” Kylo reached for him. Armitage stepped back  
“Guess again.”  
Kylo smiled. “Nothing,” he said. “I guess and hope and pray, nothing.”  
Armitage laughed. “Come and find out.”

Kylo pulled at the fabric tie and it slipped free of its knot. Armitage was nude underneath. “I guessed right,” Kylo said. “Do I get a prize?”  
“Oh,” Armitage said. “Yes. You get to put that glorious, generously sized cock in me.” Armitage grinned. “You want that, don’t you?” He put his arms around Kylo’s neck and said, in a theatrical whisper, “I want you to fuck me hard, make me forget all the shit in my life.”  
Kylo wrapped his arms around Armitage and kissed him. “We don’t have to,” he crooned quietly as his doubts resurfaced. “If you don’t want. We can pretend.”  
“Oh, I want,” Armitage said in a quiet, reassuring murmur. “I’ve had nothing else on my mind all day.” Then, louder, “I want you to fuck me.”  
“Okay!” Kylo grinned. “I stole these from medical when Miss Phasma wasn’t looking.”  
He pulled condoms and lube from his other pocket. Armitage laughed. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “Despite your rough manners you are, in fact, a gentleman.”  
Kylo undressed, with help and hindrance from Armitage. He slipped the robe from Armitage’s shoulders and let it flutter to the floor. They stood, naked, appraising each other. “You’re beautiful,” Kylo said. “I don’t want anyone to hurt you ever again.”  
“Well,” Armitage said with an uncertain smile and watery eyes. “That makes two of us.”  
Kylo put his arms around Armitage and kissed him, in no hurry despite his earlier wish for time to contract. “I’m going to take care of you. I know you think you don’t need it. I know you don’t want it, but I will.”  
“Kylo,” Armitage said, eyes grey in the dimmed light. “Are you going to fuck me now or next week?”  
Kylo laughed. “Now. And next week, if you still want me then.”

They had barely settled into bed when a harsh knocking made them jump out of bed and scrabble for clothing. “Open up! Now!” a loud voice called. “The Commandant wants to see you. Immediately.”  
Armitage rolled his eyes. “Must be the new guy. COMING!” He gave Kylo a wry smile. “I wish. Do you have everything you need?”  
Kylo patted the pocket of his trousers to check the phial was there. “Yes,” he said. “Have you?”  
Armitage patted his pockets too. “Yes,” he said. They hugged once, kissed quickly, and went out into the corridor.

Brendol Hux stood at his office window and glared at them. He ordered the security guard to fetch ‘my man Opan’ and shooed him away. “Look at the pair of you,” he said with scorn. “Weak. Pathetic. Sneaking around as if I wouldn’t find out.”  
Kylo and Armitage looked at each other. “Now?” asked Kylo.  
“Now,” agreed Armitage.

They exploded into action. Armitage went for Brendol’s head while Kylo went for his arms, pining them to his side. They wrestled Brendol into his chair, then Kylo caught his neck in a lock that cut off his carotid artery. He counted up from one. Brendol went limp at six and Kylo let him go at eight. Armitage put on the surgical gloves he’d taken from Phasma and got Brendol’s bottle of Bushmills and a crystal tumbler out of the cabinet. He poured a generous measure. Kylo broke the seal on the brown glass phial and emptied it into the drink. Brendol shuddered and mumbled.  
“Fuck!” Armitage said, taking the black silk tie from his pocket. “Almost forgot.”

When Brendol came round, he found that his hands were tied behind him and he couldn’t move his head because Kylo held him firmly enough to immobilise him with a hand under his jaw and another fisted in his greasy hair. Armitage stood before him, smiling unpleasantly. “Father,” he said. “I am so sorry for all the trouble. I poured you a drink. See?” Kylo forced Brendol’s mouth open. Armitage poured some of the drugged whisky in and Kylo did something to Brendol’s neck that made him swallow. “Enough?” Hux asked, looking at Kylo.  
“No,” Kylo said. “Make him have it all.”

Armitage and Kylo poured the drugged whisky into Brendol until he’d swallowed all of it, then Armitage poured another large measure and they made him drink that too. Armitage arranged the room neatly while Kylo cleaned the phial and pushed Brendol’s thumb and forefinger onto it. When Brendol’s head sagged forwards, Kylo shifted it so that it sagged awkwardly backwards. They waited, watching and listening, until Brendol’s stertorous breathing ceased.

And then they waited fo another few minutes.

And then they left, closing the door, nodding at Opan. Armitage grabbed Kylo’s hand and almost dragged him up to his dorm. No guard followed them. They paused outside, then Armitage turned to face Kylo. “My room is under surveillance I have to go in alone. Yours probably is too. We can’t celebrate. Not yet.”  
Kylo nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” he said. “Maybe we can talk. You know, about what happens next.”  
Armitage smiled, patted Kylo on the cheek, and went into his room. Kylo traipsed back to his.

Kylo lay awake thinking over what they had done. He wasn’t sorry about Brendol Hux. He didn’t regret a single thing he had done to contribute to the death of that monster. But what to think about Armitage? Had he been used and cast off? Was he a mere cog in the machine of Armitage’s plans?

He did not expect to sleep, and yet, he did.

Kylo was woken at 7.32am by a scream, then a few minutes later, sirens and flashing lights outside, far below his window. Yellow-jacketed police and green-suited ambulance staff went to and fro, stopping people from entering and leaving, and a black lump on a gurney was loaded up and driven away. The school felt like it was in limbo. Classes existed and some students even attended, but every conversation, every hushed exchange in the hallways, every gleeful murmur of gossip, was about the death of Brendol “the Bastard” Hux.

Armitage had sympathetic eyes following everywhere he went. Kylo tried and failed not to seek him out in the school’s communal areas, and when, eventually, deputy headteacher Brooks called an assembly, Kylo sidled up to Armitage and sat beside him. “Don’t speak to me,” Armitage murmured, and Kylo’s heart sank. But then Armitage’s hand found his and squeezed once, and he thought he might burst with joy.

Brooks informed the school that a tragedy had struck and Mr Hux was dead, it was too soon to say what the cause was, and students should not speak to the press or post anything on social media in case it compromised the investigation. He also said that the most likely outcome was natural causes, heart disease brought on by the stress of such a difficult job. Parents, he said, were being informed. Furthermore, any student who would like to spend the next week with their family was encouraged to do so while the governors appointed a new head teacher.

Kylo was packed by lunchtime. He found Armitage in his dorm, looking around at his domain.  
“Come home with me,” he said. “I mean it. We don’t have to pretend to be together if that’s a problem. If you used me for that I’m okay with it. I get it. But I like you and I want you to come stay with me.”  
“With you,” Armitage said, raising his eyebrows. “For a week, while this all settles.” He frowned,  
and Kylo sensed he was on the cusp of refusal.  
“No,” he said. “Why would you come back here? No, I mean, come home with me and sort your life out and.. I’m rambling and they’re annoying but my folks are good people. They’ll welcome you if I say you’re my friend.”  
“I don’t need pity or charity,” Armitage snapped, rounding on Kylo. “So you can shut up whenever.”  
Kylo sighed. “It’s not charity and, fuck, do I not pity you in the slightest.” He took a deep breath. “Look, if I can persuade my folks that I’ve changed, that I care for even one other person apart from myself, they’ll let me stay and maybe go to a local college and, I dunno, learn useful shit.”  
Armitage shook his head. “Whatever. Come say goodbye when they get here.”  
Kylo pursed his lips, clenched his fists, thumped the wall, and left.

Han pulled up outside the building and got out of the car. He took a few seconds to identify his kid, then his face broke into a grin and he opened his arms. “Ben! Over here!”  
Kylo hissed, but he was glad to see his dad. He walked over, bag on his shoulder, and gave Han a hug. “I want you to call me Kylo,” he said. “I’m changing my name.”  
“Kylo,” Han said. “Okay. You know Solo’s made up too?” Kylo raised his eyebrows at Han. Han laughed. “I’ll tell you about it one day when you’re in the mood to listen to an old man ramble.” He took Kylo’s bag and slung it in the back of the car. “That everything?”  
Kylo nodded. The crunch of footsteps running across gravel made Kylo turn. “No,” he said, grinning. “Not everything.”

A year later, looking across the breakfast table at Armitage, Kylo smiled. “Coronary heart disease brought on by stress and too much alcohol,” he said, reading from the school web page. “Imagine that.”  
Armitage nodded. “Not a shock to anyone. I got a text from Opan. He’s got a new job running his own security firm. He employed Phasma and, would you believe, Dopheld. Turns out he’s a competent hacker.”  
Kylo shrugged. “Always wondered how someone as quiet and polite as Doph ended up there with us. Any news on the others?”  
Armitage shook his head. “Who else did you want to know about?”  
“What are you guys gossiping about?” Rey sauntered into the kitchen, poured four mugs of coffee, and set the machine on to brew again. “Kaydel said to say hi. She loves working for your mom, Kylo.” Rey found a tray for the coffee. “Finn and Rose are working with Han in the workshop today. Poe and I are going to get some parts with your uncle Chewie. I guess that leaves you two at a loose end, huh?”

Kylo smiled at Armitage after Rey left. “Just you and me at home today,” he said. “Did you have any plans?”  
“I didn’t before,” Armitage replied. “But I think I do now. Meet me in my room at—” he looked at his phone. 8.42am. “—8.45am and we can discuss it.”  
Kylo looked at his watch and wailed. “That’s three whole minutes! How am I going to keep my hands off you for three whole minutes?”  
Armitage laughed. “All right. Fine. Come with me now.”


End file.
